Jim Curnal is a former professional baseball player who spent three years as a pitcher in the New York Yankees minor-league organization. Over the last 20 years, Jim has worked with athletes between the ages of 10 and 22, offering group and individual instruction in basketball, football and baseball. During Jim’s 10-year high school coaching tenure, he has provided instruction to hundreds of athletes in his role as a coach and personal instructor.

As Jim continued to work with and provide instruction to athletes across three sports he recognized there was common theme with his teaching, the need to be athletic. To move athletically, to maximize the use of one’s lower body to increase power, strength, balance, speed and agility. Throwing a football, shooting a basketball, hitting a baseball, defending in basketball, tackling a runner/covering a wide receiver all required maximum athleticism.

As Jim states, I recognized for the past 10 years I was teaching pitchers to throw the ball athletically. The instruction and drills I was offering emphasized the need to maximize the use of their lower body to maximize lower body energy, Resulting in reduced stress on the arm, which ultimately reduces the risk of arm injury, while maximizing performance on the mound.

My three objectives in creating the Athletic Pitcher series were:

• To provide youth pitchers with the instructional tools to enable them to have healthier and more successful pitching careers.
• To provide an instructional teaching program for coaches, players and parents which is easy to follow, easy to understand, easy to teach and easy to learn.
• Provide a program which is affordable, yet offers comprehensive instructional learning tools for coaches, players and parents.

The five Home page click-on baseballs provide an introduction to TAP. The five-part series, The Athletic Pitcher, is an informative educational tool. Tap into TAP offers a more concise instructional tool which includes short videos and drills to improve both arm health and performance. The Tap Videos section includes short videos which speak to different aspects of pitching and athletics in general. As a last piece of the TAP puzzle, I am providing the opportunity to sign up for online video instruction. All you need to do is follow the 3 easy steps highlighted in the Online instruction video clip.

My goal as a coach has first and foremost always been to provide young athletes with the tools and the opportunity to succeed. I felt there was no better way to support my philosophy and goal than to create the Athletic Pitcher series to provide the learning tools for youth pitchers and the teaching tools for coaches and parents.

Contact email: jactap2@gmail.com